Completed by late 1408 or early 1409, probably in Paris, "The Belles Heures," a private devotional book, was the first of two sumptuous manuscripts commissioned by the duke of Berry from the Limbourg brothers, Pol, Jean, and Herman. It is the only manuscript that they completed in its entirety. The other manuscript, "The Très Riches Heures," was left incomplete at the brothers' deaths in 1416. The richly illustrated text is amplified by unusual cycles reflecting the duke's personal interests. Using a luminous palette, the artists blended an intimate Northern vision of nature with Italianate modes of figural articulation. The keen interest in the natural world and the naturalistic means of representing it, so striking in ninety-four full-page and fifty-four column illuminations, foreshadow the work of Jan van Eyck and the ensuing generations of outstanding fifteenth-century painters in the South Netherlands.For more information about the Belles Heures, including descriptions of all the illuminations with their folio numbers, please see http://blog.metmuseum.org/artofillumination/.